Promoting Research and Landscape Experience in the Management of the Archaeological Networks. A Project-Valuation Experiment in Italy

Salvatore Giuffrida, Filippo Gagliano, Enrico Giannitrapani, Carmelo Marisca, Grazia Napoli and Maria Rosa Trovato
Additional contact information
Salvatore Giuffrida: Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, University of Catania, 95125 Catania, Italy
Filippo Gagliano: ITS G. Quarenghi, 24125 Bergamo, Italy
Enrico Giannitrapani: Arkeos—Integrated Services for Cultural Heritage, 94100 Enna, Italy
Carmelo Marisca: Department of Economics, University of Messina, 98122 Messina, Italy
Grazia Napoli: Department of Architecture, University of Palermo, 90128 Palermo, Italy
Maria Rosa Trovato: Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, University of Catania, 95125 Catania, Italy

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 10, 1-35

Abstract: Archaeological sites are part of the history and identity of a community playing a strategic role on the different scales of the cultural and economic common life. Whereas on the one end the most famous archaeological sites attract huge flows of tourists and investment, on the other hand, many minor archaeological sites remain almost ignored and neglected. This study proposes a project-evaluation approach devoted to the “minor” archaeological site development, outlining a territorial, socio-economic, and landscape communication pattern aimed at creating an archaeological network integrating other cultural and natural resources. As such, these networks get able to match the demand of customers who shy away from iper-consumerist tourism and want to deepen their knowledge of a place. The proposed approach integrates knowledge, evaluation, and design in a multiscale pattern whose scope is to foster and extend the archaeological research program, involving public and private stake/stockholders to widen the cultural-contemplative experience and promote further educational events concerning the themes of the local identity. With reference to the archaeological basin of Tornambè, Italy, a Web-GIS knowledge system has been drawn to provide the territorial information requested by the economic-evaluation multiscale pattern implemented to verify the cost-effectiveness of the project. The expected negative results of the economic valuation supported the allocation pattern of the considerable investment costs, as well as the hypothetic scenarios about the evolution of the cultural-contemplative experience due to the extension of the archaeological estate. Some disciplinary remarks propose a heterodox approach for a further interpretation of the economic results and financial indexes, by introducing the monetary dimension of such a social capital asset.

Keywords: archaeological basins; Web-GIS and Geodatabases; territorial marketing; cultural economics; land economy; tourism experience management; cultural estate; landscape heritage (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/10/4022/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/10/4022/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:10:p:4022-:d:358027

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().